Category: Science

I attended a party last night and was amazed to see how my nieces and nephews are going on. They are a bunch of riot – absolutely fabulous. What struck most was that the younger they were, the more sharper they seem to be. The younger of the two siblings dominates the elder and comes out to be much more intelligent and street smart.

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is the widely held notion that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor: the birds and the bananas, the fishes and the flowers — all related. Darwin’s general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and stresses a purely naturalistic (undirected) “descent with modification”. That is, complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over time. In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism’s genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival — a process known as “natural selection.” These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism (not just a variation of the original, but an entirely different creature).

I feel that Darwin talked about the possible mutation of simpler species to more complex and completely different ones, preserving some of the beneficial genetic code, which is required for survival. The generation gap these days seems to have narrowed considerably where a difference of 2-3 years makes one see the difference. I was definitely not this sharp at age 1, as is my dear niece and nor was there even a hint of competitive or possessive spirit in me then. So with each passing year, the children of today seem to be bettering themselves and becoming better than their predecessors, in this case, their very own elder siblings.

I wasn’t very skeptical about evolution or the various theories prescribed, but somehow looking at this fast paced mutation, I seem to take a liking for Darwin sir’s theory.